the white fire in ruidoso- still a danger-- but firefighters are making some progress. we were the only station that brought you live coverage of the last public briefing where fire officials announced late this morning- the fire is now 65- hundreds acres in size. our joe bartels was at the briefing and joins us live fro ruidoso- on the fire watch. the white fire is still burning out of control in the area to the east of ruidoso downs. about 200 evacuees and concerned residents packed the ruidoso high school g this morning. officials say the weather is finally starting to cooperate for fire crews. the incident commander says crews will work throughout the day trying to protect as many homes as possible. " we are currently putting dozer lines around the fire to make sure we can get as much containment on the incident today. we have a combination of hand crews dozers engines that are working in the area." fire officials say five homes burned and dseveral outbuildings have been destroyed. air tankers will begin dropping retardant to start getting some containment. k-o-b eyewitness news four will be out here to bring you any latest developments live. we will break in to programming if necessary... and willring you the very latest on k- o-b eyewitness news four at five. six areas around ruidoso remain under evacuation orders. here's a look at the list. evacuees can go to the gateway church of christ and the first baptist church in ruidoso. we are told ten people stayed at the first baptist church overnight... it's not known how many stayed at the other location. fema is stepping in to help with the ruidoso fire... we got word overnight that a fire management assistance grant has been approved. it will go to help cover the costs of fighting the fire ... but not the damage. e fire in ruidoso is affecting power for people living in lincoln county. the otero county electric co-op is asking residents to reduce power use as much as possible--- after a line burned over the weekend in alto. crews have restored power and are making additional repairs. however- alto residents are now using the same substation that supplies power to capitan and carrizozo ... potentially straining part of the electric grid.
